The High Court has ruled that it cannot award legal parenthood to the biological parents of twins born through a UK surrogacy arrangement, because the surrogate who carried them has refused to give her permission.

Mr Justice MacDonald has reminded local authorities and their representatives of 'the cardinal principles' applicable to complying with case management directions made by the court in public law cases.

Hospitals are forcing surrogates to hand over newborn babies to parents in car parks for fear they may fall foul of "dire" and "outdated" surrogacy laws that are failing families, The Independent can reveal.

These rules amend rule 14.2 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010, which makes provision for the assignment of serial numbers to adoptive parents or prospective adoptive parents in proceedings for adoption and certain other proceedings, in order to keep their identity confidential.

Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, has issued a statement on the judicial website clarifying the status of draft guidance on anonymising judgments published in August 2016 by the Association of Lawyers for Children and Dr Julia Brophy.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills, has written to Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary raising concerns about the contribution of police to safeguarding child.

Councils could use controversial new powers allowing them to be exempted from children's social care legislation in order to streamline checks on potential foster carers, the Department for Education has suggested.

The government needs to take urgent action to secure the viability and sustainability of the family courts in response to the rising number of litigants and a sharp decline in funding, a leading family lawyer has said.

According to the National Audit Office, the actions taken by the Department for Education since 2010 to improve the quality of help and protection services delivered by local authorities for children have not yet resulted in services being of good enough quality.